Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.
Charles DarwinRead
I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Darwin questions the existence of a benevolent God in light of natural suffering.
In this quote, Charles Darwin reflects on the seemingly cruel aspects of nature, particularly the relationship between parasitic wasps and caterpillars. He expresses skepticism about the idea of a benevolent and all-powerful deity, suggesting that the existence of such a malevolent feature in nature contradicts the concept of a caring Creator. This quote highlights the tension between faith and the observed realities of the natural world.
Themes
GodNatureSufferingPhilosophyDarwin
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about the existence of God and the problem of evil.
More from Charles Darwin
All quotes βThe highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
Charles DarwinRead
I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science....It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many flaw[s] & holes as sound parts.
Charles DarwinRead
We cannot fathom the marvelous complexity of an organic being; but on the hypothesis here advanced this complexity is much increased. Each living creature must be looked at as a microcosm--a little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars in heaven.
Charles DarwinRead
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.
Charles DarwinRead
we are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not see the intermediate steps
Charles DarwinRead
Similar quotes
Life, this anti-entropy, ceaselessly reloaded with energy, is a climbing force, toward order amidst chaos, toward light, among the darkness of the indefinite, toward the mystic dream of Love, between the fire which devours itself and the silence of the Cold.
Albert ClaudeRead
Solitude is different from loneliness, and it doesn't have to be a lonely kind of thing.
Fred RogersRead
The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our hope, the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the more pain its loss will bring: these are a few of the paradoxes we must hold as human beings. If we refuse to hold them in the hopes of living without doubt, despair, and pain, we also find ourselves living without faith, hope, and love.
Parker J. PalmerRead
It is so characteristic, that just when the mechanics of reproduction are so vastly improved, there are fewer and fewer people who know how the music should be played.
Ludwig WittgensteinRead
The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.
Alexis De TocquevilleRead
I want to hear an alternative viewpoint, and I don't want girls to be defanged and declawed and pretty and mute.
Shirley MansonRead